Aftermarket rag joints?

Been getting to the bottom of miserable bump-steer/front end vibration. 13wl calipers & upper/lower ball joints helped. Lca bushings, steering rack bushings, reservoir screen clean, & coilovers helped more. Also replaced outer tie rod ends which all showed signs of wear (torn boots, looseness) Everythings tight now except still have 3" play in wheel which still means deadly bump steer at high speeds.

I'm thinking its likely the rag joints been beat to death by 250k of vibrations. Or the upper U joint for tilt wheel is beat. And/or the inner tie rod ends/steering rack.

Any advice on diagnosing which? Or on an aftermarket rag joint thats reliable & costs less than the $258 oem? I dont want to weld it because I drive on the interstate often and figure they made it collapsable for a good reason. Thanks for any help

 

Has anyone installed aftermarket rag joints? Dorman or energy suspension?

 

is there another 1st gen forum worth checking?

 

When you were replacing the outer tie rods, did you check for play in the inner tie rods? 3 inches of steering wheel play is a lot. To help diagnose the problem, you could get under the vehicle while somebody else gets in the cab and turns the steering wheel back and forth for you while you're looking at the steering linkage. If it was the rag joint or the steering universal joint above, I would imagine you could see and feel the slop in the joint. For the steering rack, I would disconnect the outer tie rods from the balljoints and push and pull on them to try to detect any play from the inner tie rods. For the driver side, you have the steering rack guide that can get loose. Push forward and pull back on that shaft to see if there's gross play. If so, you can either try just tightening it up, or better yet, upgrade the guide to the newer style if yours has the older style guide. Finally, the play you are experiencing could be coming from the steering shaft where the shaft is designed to collapse on itself in the case of a bad front end collision.

Here's a video you can use for the Steering Rack Guide Replacement:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/r4Hhl225E8A


Here's a video you can use to fix the Steering Play in the shaft and tilt ball assembly:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xsOptgpfshg


Finally, if it looks like your steering rack is shot, you can use this video to replace it:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/wZoRP5ogrK0

IF IT WERE ME, I WOULD NOT USE AN AFTERMARKET RAG JOINT IF YOU AT ALL VALUE YOUR LIFE. I've used energy suspension for their bushings, but using something aftermarket in relation to the steering of your rig just sounds a little risky to me. Good luck!

 

Thanks much for the help & info Timmah! I've seen a few of your videos before and they were a true god-sent. I did13wls & lca bushings because of your vids & am way better off for it. I'll check inner ties, steering guide type (have an 02 so think it's newer one) & tension, but am thinking its probably rag &/or u-joint because play feels close to wheel & is evident when ignition is off. I was thinking aftermarket rag may be a bad idea... glad i asked & thanks again for the help